This year, twelve sommeliers joined in the Sommelier Scavenger Hunt. Each team of three chose a region, visiting fields and cellars to find pinot noirs with unmistakable terroir character.

John Szabo, MS, Brad Royale and Véronique Rivest—all Canadians (pictured with SommScavenge Project Manager Keiko Takano)—returned to the competition this year, after their knockout collection of long-lived Hunter Valley semillon nearly came out on top in 2016. Szabo had just finished a book on volcanic wines and was keen to travel to Oregon’s Willamette Valley; his team turned its attention to the region’s volcanic, sedimentary and wind-blown soils and their influence on the local pinot noir.

Six Essential Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs

Hawks View 2014 Chehalem Mountains Pinot Noir
This comes from a type of loess soil called Laurelwood, explains Rivest. “Wind-blown, very light soils give that very silky, elegant tannin—they’re some of the softest, most elegant wines in the valley.”

Lumos 2014 Eola–Amity Hills Temperance Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir
Szabo points out that the Lumos wine is a product of volcanic Nekia soil. The shallow, rocky soil and the cooling effect of winds coming through the Van Duzer Corridor, he says, result in a pinot noir that’s tense and tart, with tightly wound tannins. He considers Temperance Hill “one of the great vineyards of the valley.”

Cristom 2014 Eola–Amity Hills Jessie Vineyard Pinot Noir
Jessie’s soils are more mixed than Temperance Hill’s: Nekia, plus four other basalt-derived soils. The site is also more sheltered from the wind. The result, Szabo says, is a wine that’s “a little richer, darker, meatier but also extremely spicy.”